Posted on 04/12/2016 3:13:48 AM PDT by raybbr
One of the things about writing a book about zombies is that it becomes kind of necessary to keep up on the genre. In the five years since “Theories of International Politics and Zombies” came out, this wasn’t too much of a burden: Read the occasional prestige zombie novel, watch the occasional bastardized film version of a zombie novel and watch “The Walking Dead” on AMC.
As that show’s ratings have exploded, however, there has been the inevitable proliferation of spin-offs and homages, including AMC’s “Fear the Walking Dead” and the CW’s “iZombie.” And, well, it’s getting a little more taxing to keep up on it all.
Fortunately, I think I’ve discovered a significant zombie life hack to cope with these rising demands: Stop watching the “Walking Dead” franchise.
The problem is not that either “The Walking Dead” (TWD) or “Fear the Walking Dead” (FtWD) is entirely without merit. The former has produced some interesting characters, particularly Melissa McBride’s Carol. The latter also has some talented actors, particularly Kim Dickens, Ruben Blades and Colman Domingo.
The problem with these shows is that they seem unable to escape a single, unrelenting theme: The post-apocalyptic world is a Hobbesian nightmare that forces surviving humans to evolve into nihilistic killing machines.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
I've come to not care about any of the characters. All the good ones, except for Glenn, are gone. The producers have inured me to the death of characters that I liked so I just don't care anymore if any of them die.
At the end of the last ep I just shrugged my shoulders and said, "Okay, so they killed off another one. Big deal."
I may continue to watch by downloading torrents but I stopped staying up to watch a year ago for the above reason.
TWD ping.
Why do I get the feeling in the back of my mind that the writer (a Law Professor) is somehow figuring out some meme that “Zombies have rights, too!” and trying to figure out how to wrangle a class action law suit even before the zombie apocalypse begins?
I watch The Walking Dead more for the survivalist and prepper insights it offers than for the human-zombie battles.
In any post-apocalyptic world (meteor strike, plague, zombies, etc.) the survivors would naturally have to face other survivors. Right now, there are a lot of people in this world that I would NOT want to see running around without adult supervision.
The Walking Dead franchise, more and more, is focused on that weird, violent dynamic. Would your mild-mannered neighbor turn into a petty tyrant, or a cannibal, or a pedophile? Yeah, possibly.
Interesting and instructive.
Actually, real life has often been much worse than TWD.
Read about the Siege of Jerusalem, and the starvation. Roving gangs went house to house looking for food. Sometimes, the starvation was so bad, their mental capacity was affected and they would go back to a house they already visited, because they couldn’t remember having raided it already.
One house, they smelled food. They found it was a mother eating her baby.
I don’t get the zombie thing. No basis in fact like most scifi
I do enjoy zambie comedies. ‘Sean of the Dead’ and ‘Zambiand’ are great
Zombies. Otherwise known as the Colorado Republican Party
I saw the trailer for the new Star Wars spinoff-”Rogue 1,” and I just couldn’t watch the whole thing. Wise, all-powerful black Jedi mentor, check, Asian martial arts trainer, check, empowered women, check. I’ll be keeping my hard-earned shekels on this one, thanks.
When it came out I watched it for prepper/survivalist stuff; I just got sick of the PC nonsense with the characters.
I have to say I agree with you. For me I can watch a 42 minute TWD episode in about 7 minutes by fast forwarding through the exposition.
It’s all well and good to have a show that centers on the drama of human survival in a post apocalyptic world. But when that’s all there is and the show lacks an overarching idea (as opposed to a theme) that the characters can coalesce then it just becomes mindless.
Even survival, as a sense of purpose, can only hold my attention for so long. Consider Falling Skies on TNT (obviously not as good as TWD) which had some of the same elements: post-apocalyptic world, survival, aliens instead of zombies. At least that show didn’t waste my time as much with melodramatic navel-gazing and self-introspection. They had a goal: rid the planet of the aliens. There was some character development, but it was always subordinate to advancing the main idea of the plot. TWD is the reverse of that.
On a serious note the whole dead coming to life thing is actually biblical. When Yeshua returns "We all will be changed" not just the righteous, ALL. It's gonna be some strange times a coming.
Writers need reedumification.
I agree. TWD is revealing in its examination of what happens to people in extreme survival situations. Those with characters like Shane, the governor, Negan, and the Terminus gang WILL be a threat once the constraints of polite society are gone.
I enjoyed the show very much in it’s debut season. Then I tuned into season 2, and it already started to “get old” halfway through the season. However, I was curious, so I stuck with it to see what happened up to the finale of that 2nd season. Didn’t even start watching the 3rd season, and I haven’t had any interest since.
I’m with you on not getting the zombie craze of the last several years. Serpent and the Rainbow was the only ‘zombie’ film I remember liking, and that was due to its plausibility. The genre seems silly to me.
I don’t have cable, and I’m not going to pay to watch online. Saw the first couple of seasons, and a few episodes here and there after that. I don’t think I’m missing anything.
Which siege of Jerusalem? The one in 70 AD or the later ones?
Very good, very good.. The one in 70AD.
The story of “Mary of Bethezuba”, related by Josephus, slave of Vespasian and advisor of Titus.
Serpent and the Rainbow?
Wow, that’s a blast from the past.
The protagonist got a nail driven through his scrotum.
Truly a masterpiece of horror!
thanks - I googled that. Horrifying. She probably had gone mad
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